Wolfgang Van Halen’s solo vehicle powers through the gears with another set of pumped-up guitar-rich rock tunes.
Opening this third album as Mammoth with a song called One Of A Kind seems unusually apt. While Wolfgang Van Halen carries the monumental legacy of his guitar icon father Eddie on his shoulders, few – if any – know their way around a studio like this guy. Not just singing (brilliantly) and playing guitar (phenomenally, like his dad), he’s also put down everything else on The End, including the drums. Wolf, almost literally, stands on his own.
His songs are muscular, full of light and life, and obviously ripple with bravura musicianship and melody. The title-track, with its eye-popping werewolf-and-zombie-themed video, puts all of this into an explosive little capsule.
Some of his attractively languid hook-laying evokes comparison with Jerry Cantrell, although unlike the Alice In Chains legend, Wolfgang’s tunesmithery is buoyed on the joys of life. There is nothing downbeat about this big-hearted slab of song-making and nowhere is this combination of melody and light more evident than on Happy. Here he steps away from convention, paints some different patterns but eases any confusion with another rich chorus.
The album’s only downside is that given the gasp-inducing talent of its creator, you do wish he’d push the songs a bit further. While the delivery is pin sharp, the images it sketches can be a bit join-the-dots, one tune followed by a vaguely similar other. The opener and Happy are multi-faceted exceptions, but these are largely songs that swim similar strokes.
Wolf does wind to a satisfying conclusion via the aggressive Selfish, racing drums, rifling riffs and a big hooky pay-off, before closer proper All In Good Time takes us back to radio-friendly territory. These are both insights into the artist’s world, one that he’s rapidly expanding. ‘I never dreamed that I would get this far,’ he emotes in that last track – but the fact that he has is not by chance and has little to do with his storied surname. This guy can simply do everything.
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: Alter Bridge, Foo Fighters, Jerry Cantrell
The End is out now via BMG
